Hoaxes 1 Through 5

From the supposed last photo taken at the
top of the World Trade Center to the endlessly revised request for assistance
from a Nigerian functionary, here are our top five Web and e-mail
hoaxes.

1.
The Accidental Tourist (2001)

Quite possibly the most famous hoax picture ever, this gruesome
idea of a joke traveled around the Web and made a grand tour of e-mail inboxes
everywhere soon after the tragedy of September 11. It depicts a tourist
standing on the observation deck of one of the World Trade Center towers,
unknowingly posing for a picture as an American Airlines plane approaches in
the background.

At first glance it appears to be real, but if you examine
certain details, you'll see that
it's a
craftily modified image. For starters, the plane that struck the WTC was
a wide-body Boeing 767; the one in the picture is a smaller 757. The approach
of the plane in the picture is from the north, yet the building it would have
hit--the North tower--didn't have an outdoor observation deck. Furthermore, the
South tower's outdoor deck didn't open until 9:30 a.m. on weekdays, more than
half an hour after the first plane struck the WTC. The picture is a hoax,
through and through--and not a particularly amusing one, under the
circumstances.

Image courtesy of Snopes.com.

2. Sick Kid Needs Your Help (1989)

This gem had its roots in reality. It all began in 1989, when
nine-year-old cancer patient
Craig Shergold
thought of a way to achieve his dream of getting into the Guinness
Book of World Records. Craig asked people to send greeting cards,
and boy, did they. By 1991, 33 million greeting cards had been sent, far
surpassing the prior record. Ironically, however, the
Guinness
World Records site doesn't contain any mention of Craig Sherwood or a
"most greeting cards received" record, presumably because the fine folks at the
site don't want to encourage anyone to try to break his mark. (Astonishingly,
Guinness doesn't have an entry for world's stoutest person, either, but it does
honor the
World's
Largest Tankard of Beer.)

Fortunately, doctors succeeded in
removing the tumor, and Craig is now a healthy adult, but his appeal for cards
has turned into
the hoax that won't
die. Variations on the theme include a sick girl dying of cancer, and a
little boy with leukemia whose dying wish is to start an eternal chain letter.
A recent iteration tells a tragic tale of a girl who supposedly was horribly
burned in a fire at WalMart, and then claims that
AOL will pay all
of her medical bills if only if you forward this e-mail to EVERYONE YOU
KNOW!!! Okay, enough already.

Image courtesy of
Snopes.com.

3.
Bill Gates Money Giveaway (1997)

No, it's true. I thought it was a
scam, but it happened to a buddy of mine. It seems that Microsoft is testing
some new program for tracing e-mail, and the company needs volunteers to help
try the thing out. He forwarded me an e-mail that he received from
Microsoft--and get this,
from Bill Gates
himself! Two weeks later, as a reward for participating, my pal received
a check for thousands of dollars! Sure he did. Another version of this hoax
claims that AOL's tracking service is offering a cash reward. Tell you
what--when you get your check, send me 10 percent as a finder's fee,
okay?

4.
Five-Cent E-Mail Tax (1999)

"Dear Internet Subscriber," the e-mail
starts. "The Government of the United States is quietly pushing through
legislation that will affect your use of the Internet." It goes on to reveal
that "Bill 602P" will authorize the U.S. Postal Service to assess a charge of
five cents for every e-mail sent. Not a bad way to cut down on the number of
dopey e-mail chain letters and lame jokes people let loose on the world. But
credulous curse averters and connoisseurs of boffo laffs can relax: This e-mail
alert, which popped up in 1999 and comes back for a visit every year or so,
just isn't true. Still, it sounded plausible enough to
fool
Hillary Clinton during a 2000 debate when she was running for the
Senate.

5.
Nigerian 419 E-Mail Scam (2000)

"DEAR SIR," the e-mail starts.
"FIRSTLY I MUST FIRST SOLICIT YOUR CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION; LET ME START
BY INTRODUCING MYSELF PROPERLY..." I'm sure you've received one of these--a
confidential, urgent e-mail message promising you a reward of mucho dinero for
helping this person convey money abroad. All you need do in return is entrust
your name and bank account number to the government bureaucrat (or his uncle,
aunt, or cousin, the ostensible "credit officer with the union bank of Nigeria
plc (uba) Benin branch") who needs your help.

It's the Nigerian con, also
known as an Advanced Fee Fraud or
419
scam (so called because of the section number of the Nigerian criminal
code that applies to it). Ancestors of these scams appeared in the 1980s, when
the media of choice were letters or faxes--and they're still wildly successful
at snagging people. In fact,
Oprah
recently featured a victim of the Nigerian scam on her show. And if you think
that smart, educated folks couldn't possibly fall for it, you'll be surprised
when you read "
The Perfect
Mark," a New Yorker magazine article
profiling a Massachusetts psychotherapist who was duped--and lost a
fortune.

To see how the hoax works, visit
Scamorama, a fascinating site
that features a progression of e-mail messages stringing along 419 scammers,
sometimes for months at a time. Finally, check out the
3rd Annual
Nigerian E-Mail Conference, an absolutely perfect spoof.